The inventive concept relates generally to semiconductor devices and methods of fabricating same.
Semiconductor devices are widely used in consumer electronics and computational systems because of their small size, varied functionality, and/or low manufacturing costs. The patterns, elements, electrically-connective signal lines, and related components used to implement contemporary semiconductor devices are very densely integrated on one or more substrates. Thus, the respective spacing(s) (e.g., the separating widths) between the constituent parts of semiconductor devices has been progressively reduced. Indeed, continuing demands for denser and denser semiconductor devices integration has necessitated the development of new (and expensive) exposure techniques in order to define ever more fine patterns.
However, there are practical limits associated with the reduction in size and increased integration density of semiconductor devices